The petition on the first page has an illegible signature, but we are led to believe it belongs to none other than Byron Brown’s right-hand man, Steve Casey. For comparison’s sake, here is the signature shown on that petition:

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And here is Casey’s signature (dated 2006), taken from the Board of Elections:

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In my opinion, the signatures match.

These petitions were reportedly filed on Collins’ behalf, and they contain glaringly few actual signatures – as if the people circulating them weren’t really looking to ensure Collins’ inclusion on the Conservative line, but instead sending a message. The message here is, quite figuratively, a massive middle finger to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who went out of his way to broker a Democratic peace for the 2011 election cycle. This is Byron Brown and Steve Casey saying, “we’re not making peace with anyone” and underscoring the fact that their dealmaking and quids pro quo with Collins are far more important than actual policy or Democratic electoral success or unity; it’s possible that these petitions were circulated with Brown’s deals with Collins in mind.

But on the surface, it’s a frank betrayal of any Democratic bona fides Brown and his gang purport to have ever had, as they are clearly supporting a county executive who goes out of his way to do economic and social harm disproportionately targeting the poorest residents of the city Brown likes to think he represents as Mayor.

Prior to publishing this report, I reached out to City Hall through Brown’s spokesman, Mike DeGeorge. I sent him the following email:

Mr. DeGeorge:

Tomorrow morning, WNYMedia.net will be running a story evidencing that top members of Mayor Brown’s cabinet, as well as someone in the law department and two people affiliated with citizen services, circulated Conservative Party nominating petitions for Chris Collins and a Family Court judge.

The reason for writing is to determine whether any of the following people: [names omitted] might have any comment on the matter, or whether the Mayor may wish to comment or issue a statement in some way.

As you’re no doubt aware, Governor Cuomo and Charlie King brokered a negotiated peace between the rival factions in the Democratic Party. Although the peace is messy, this is quite an interesting breach of it indeed.

My questions to these people would be:

What purpose would there be for these city officials to so brazenly disregard the Governor’s wishes, yet only collect a tiny handful of signatures?

What is the message being sent here to Andrew Cuomo? To Brian Higgins, ECDC, Grassroots, and city Democrats?

Will Mayor Brown be endorsing Chris Collins for County Executive?

Will Mayor Brown be endorsing Mark Poloncarz for County Executive?

Will Mayor Brown be endorsing anyone for County Executive?

Is there some quid pro quo or dealmaking underlying this apparent public support of Chris Collins?

Is Mayor Brown (or do any of these people) in favor of Collins’ policies, despite the fact that the poorest city residents have been most directly (often adversely) affected by them?

Has the Mayor heard from Governor Cuomo regarding this issue?

Is Mayor Brown thinking of changing his party affiliation?

The article is scheduled to run at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Any statement/comment or response(s) to these questions would be appreciated before then. I am specifically not asking for confirmation or denial or comment about the fact that the petitions were circulated and filed – the documents, which I will post, will speak for themselves. Mr. Casey’s signature appears on one of them, although I cannot be 100% sure. Perhaps he would like to confirm or deny that fact. The documents – in pdf format – are visible by following this link. http://www.scribd.com/doc/60554311/CON-Petitions

I have heard from several sources tonight that our long nightmare of Democratic factionalism is over.

I’ll expound later, but the deal appears to be sealed. Len Lenihan will resign as Chairman of the Democratic Party. Sources say he will be replaced by John Crangle – Joe’s nephew, current Town Committee Chair in Tonawanda, who works for the Clerk’s office.

All of the various factions in Erie County have bought into this global settlement of all outstanding grievances. The Democratic Party, therefore, moves into the 2011 campaign season as a united front against Chris Collins and the Republicans.

This, folks, is huge.

UPDATE: The official word just came in:

Lenihan to Retire as Democratic Chairman

Erie County Democratic Chairman to Accept Senior State Democratic Committee Role

Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan today announced that he is retiring as County Chairman in late July and will accept a senior position with the New York State Democratic Committee.

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs announced today that winning the seven major county executive races this November is a top priority for the state party and that Lenihan has agreed to lead the state effort. “Coming off the incredible upset victory in the 26th Congressional special election, I can think of no one better for this important task,” said Jacobs.

“The state party is grateful to have him sprinkle the Lenihan magic around the state, and he will leave behind an Erie County Democratic Committee that is stronger than ever before” said Charlie King, Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Committee.

There are major county executive races this fall in Suffolk, Erie, Monroe, Broome, Dutchess, Ulster and Albany Counties which Lenihan will be involved in.

Lenihan, who was first elected Democratic Chairman in September 2002, said, “The Erie County Democratic Committee has accomplished so much in the past 9 years. Serving our community and our party each and every day has been a privilege. I have had the honor of working with some of the greatest community activists in the country, right here in Erie County. Just last month we showed the world what we can do when we elected Kathy Hochul to Congress.”

Under Lenihan’s tenure as Chairman, 3 Democratic Members of Congress have been elected in WNY, 11 out of the last 13 State Supreme Court Justices have been elected as Democrats, Mark Poloncarz was elected and reelected as the first Democratic County Comptroller in over 30 years, and the first ever super-majority of Democratic Legislators were elected.

Lenihan said “Timing is everything and leadership requires us to make tough choices. After consulting with my family and close friends, I have decided that now is the right time to hand over the reins of the County Committee to new leadership and to focus my efforts on this exciting new challenge. I will guide our Democratic Committee through the petitioning process and in late July 2011 I will retire as Chairman of the Erie County Democratic Committee.”

Lenihan concluded, “I look forward in my new State Party role to helping Mark Poloncarz defeat Chris Collins in the fall and assisting our Party and community.”

Prior to becoming County Chairman in 2002, Lenihan served as Erie County Personnel Commissioner and, before that, as an Erie County legislator and Chairman of the Legislature. His 9 year tenure makes him the longest serving Erie County Democratic Chairman since Joe Crangle left in 1988.

I’ve heard from several sources that the young woman operating camera two is named Emily Hunter. She’s a young Rochester-area Republican operative, and I’ve been working the phones trying to confirm this. Unsurprisingly, a call in to the Corwin campaign has not been returned.

Ms. Hunter is a recent University of Rochester graduate who was on Chris Lee’s payroll last summer. It’s fun to me how many of Corwin’s campaign staffers are Lee deadenders who want quite desperately to keep their sweet federal jobs and bennies.

Socialists.

I’m quite eager to ask her whether, as alleged by Tricky Nick Langworthy and the Corwin “campaign,” that the batteries were dead in the camcorder she was holding behind Michael “Horshack” Mallia on that fateful night when Mallia obstructed Jack Davis’ path to his car, yelling “coward!” at him. Everyone wants to know what’s on the tape she shot, and everyone wants to get her take on batterygate.

The brain trust behind the ridiculous Corwin “campaign” is facing its first real test right now. Chris Grant (a former guest poster on this site) and Nick Langworthy, the Erie County Republican chairman, are known throughout the region and state, respectively, as wunderkinds who brilliantly navigated candidates such as Jane Corwin, Chris Collins, and Chris Lee to victory. They were part of the team that incredibly secured the Republican nomination for unlikely nominee and email enthusiast Carl Paladino.

There’s just one problem with the mythology there. They’ve never faced a credible opponent.

Jeff Bono? Alice Kryzan? Rick Lazio? Jim Keane? The only one of those who broke 40% was Kryzan. Barely.

With this week’s poorly planned, and horribly executed, failed effort to “gotcha” Jack Davis, the Corwin campaign and those running it are looking quite clownish. It’s amateur hour when your tracker ends up sounding like this.

But Chris Grant and Nick Langworthy have a history of apparently screwing their candidate.

A tipster clued me in this week to a story dating back to the Paladino campaign that was never revealed publicly involving both of Corwin’s brain trust. I asked around and the story snowballed from there.

In the days leading up to the Republican primary in 2010, Paladino and the tea party wing supporting him (the “Taxpayer Party” line) were backing Air Force veteran and decorated former CIA officer Gary Berntsen for Senate, not professional political strategist Jay Townsend. People close to the situation allege that Chris Collins’ Chief of Staff Chris Grant and Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy deceived Carl Paladino and misappropriated his money to print a palm card endorsing the wrong US Senate candidate, Jay Townsend. Grant and Langworthy are now helping to run Corwin’s awful campaign.

Paladino confidants I spoke with allege that both Langworthy and Grant knew full well that Paladino was supporting Gary Berntsen, but that they conspired behind Carl’s back with Nick Sinatra and Roger Stone to deliberately mislead conservatives and tea partiers throughout New York State into thinking that Carl backed Townsend instead.

With full knowledge that Paladino was backing Berntsen, former Rove aide Nick Sinatra – a longtime family friend of Paladino’s – went behind Carl’s back and plotted with Stone, Grant, and Langworthy to replace Berntsen’s name and image with Townsend’s on palmcards to be distributed by conservative and tea party groups throughout New York State. This email is the smoking gun:

Feelings about this issue are still raw. TEA New York (Palinists) sent this out in March to their email list:

Commandos & Mercenaries

Former Iraq War commander Gary Berntsen has come out in full support of fellow veteran David Bellavia for the Special Election in the 26th CD. We love David too, but are reticent to endorse, as the TEA Party doesn’t generally support third party candidates, for fear of splitting the line, and handing the seat to the least favorable of all contenders. You’ll remember that Gary Berntsen was the US Senate candidate that opposed Chuckie Schumer, and was listed on the Taxpayer petition along with the rest of the Paladino team of candidates. Well, a few people in Carl’s campaign, some paid, apparently fancied themselves independent political operatives and clandestine master manipulators, and spent a small fortune of Carl’s money WITHOUT HIS KNOWLEDGE OR APPROVAL, for a large lit drop naming Jay Townsend as the Paladino endorsed candidate. We caught wind and squelched the effort as best we could, and Carl issued an urgent press release confirming Berntsen as the Paladino endorsed candidate. But a Langworthy/GOP rally featuring Townsend along with Carl only served to reinforce support for Townsend, confuse others, and ultimately split the votes between Townsend and Berntsen. Townsend was getting similar support from RINO leaders around state, and went on the win the Primary, but lost in the General Election. Bernsten got screwed by the Republicans, and now he has assembled a sizable army that have come up from Long Island to gather signatures for Bellavia. At this writing, they have met the minimum, and are now exceeding the number of signatures needed to run a third line, which is called the Federalist Party.

Berntsen was instrumental in the effort to help Bellavia get on the ballot in NY-26, an effort that failed due to a lack of money and a concerted effort by the Republicans to threaten anyone and everyone associated with Bellavia. Paladino was first made aware of this fraud one day before the September 2010 primary by a tea party activist in Staten Island, who angrily called the Paladino campaign to complain about the Townsend replacement. The palmcards had been sent by Sinatra. The tea party – especially Berntsen’s core supporters at the Long Island Conservative Society for Action – was pissed, as was Paladino, who immediately and publicly expressed his support for Berntsen.

Paladino did not, however, recall the palm cards, and thousands were passed out to voters throughout western New York, and around the state. It’s quite possible that this clever trickery cost Berntsen the primary. Most of these cards ended up here, where turnout in the Republican primary was huge.

After all, at the time, Paladino was assured by the apparent wrongdoers that this was all just a printing error; that it was inadvertent. It wasn’t until the email shown above was revealed many months later that the deception became evident.

Calls to the FBI were met with the standard, “we can neither confirm nor deny” that there is – or was – an investigation into this fraud. Emails to Grant and Langworthy seeking comment sent Thursday morning were not returned. I did confirm that the FBI interviewed Berntsen, as well as others involved in the deceit. The authenticity of the email shown above has been confirmed through several sources who worked closely with the Paladino campaign, and is not in dispute.

Jane Corwin’s campaign should watch its back, and make sure it closely guards its checkbook. As we’ve learned through the Bellavia whisper campaign, the failed set-up of Jack Davis by Corwin and Michael Mallia, there is no level quite too low for these guys to stoop to. This, folks, is your Erie County Republican Party. These are the Keystone Kops who will soon be running the Collins re-election campaign.

Davis Bails on Channel 2

I understand why Jack Davis is backing out of the farcical Channel 2 non-debate.

First of all, who holds a political debate at 9 in the morning? Who’s watching a political debate at 9 in the morning? No one. At 9 in the morning, most people are at work. Ah, but Channel 2 will be rebroadcasting it at 12 noon, as well! It will even be simulcast on WECK 1230-AM at that time. Well, that’s also not really a very convenient time for people to watch or listen to a political debate, because people are at work. Some might opt to watch online at their desks during their lunch hour, but it’s supposed to be another gloriously sunny 70 degree day.

Under normal circumstances, a normal television station would do what serious television stations usually do and air the debate during prime time, when people are home, and when most people are done with dinner.

I checked, and apparently Channel 2 doesn’t want to pre-empt an all-new Community, and an Office repeat with a local congressional debate.

Channel 2 isn’t holding a serious debate because no one’s going to watch it. They’ll play some sound bites during their newscasts, and that’s about all that most voters will glean from this thing. You’ll have to seek out the video on their barely navigable website to watch the whole thing in dribs and drabs. Fail.

Baiting Davis

It’s also become quite evident that there is nothing scarier and more serious to the Erie County GOP than the fact that Jack Davis is polling in the mid-20s. They’re quite palpably freaking out over this, and they’re pulling out all the stops to destroy Davis, practically ignoring Kathy Hochul in the process. Yesterday I linked to the Karl Rove-backed video that you’ll soon be very sick of. Corwin’s campaign, led by supposed Buffalo Republican wunderkinds Nick Langworthy and Chris Grant, is panicking because this should have been a cakewalk like Lee vs. Kryzan in 2008 and Lee vs. nobody in 2010.

Davis doesn’t perform well in debates and he isn’t warm and fuzzy. The more he’s seen by voters, the less they like him. I’ve seen him debate in person on several occasions, and he’s just lousy at it. So, it’s no surprise that he pulled out of Channel 2’s “debate” today. The GOP lashed him over it, saying he can’t “be trusted” or some such nonsense.

This is edited down to high heaven and you can’t figure out what’s happening, why it happened, or who’s harassing Jack. I don’t see Jack hitting anyone in this video, but someone off-screen shoves the cameraman who dramatically grunts for effect. A lot of shaky camerawork and bad acting. I’d like to see this within context, unedited. The Davis campaign should hire someone to track its trackers.

David Bellavia tweeted:

The tweet has since been removed changed (UPDATE).

[HTML2]

And a similar sentiment was posted to his Facebook page:

The Corwin campaign is desperate because its candidate came out in favor of obliterating Medicare, has a thin resume, is lying about her resume, is something of an empty container spouting GOP talking points, and is otherwise not thought of either negatively or positively in the region. By contrast, people either love or hate Davis, and most people think Hochul is the bee’s knees.

The Corwin campaign is desperate because its cakewalk is now riddled with roadblocks. She hasn’t been winning hearts and minds with her alleged ideas or positions, so she has to send out goons to harass cranky older candidates. She has to send out goons to threaten David Bellavia, and accuse him of wrongdoing. She has to send out goons to ruin David Bellavia’s life because he has the nerve to fight back.

What we’re witnessing from the party of Tom Reynolds, Chris Lee, Chris Collins, and Carl Paladino is thuggery that would seem right at home in Central American, Taiwanese, or Eastern European politics. Threats, goons, intimidation, and ruination of lives shouldn’t be part and parcel of political campaigns for a podunk congressional race in a podunk part of a podunk region.

Shame on the Erie County Republican Party, and shame on anyone who doesn’t condemn this disgraceful, dictatorial, violent thuggery. It failed in making Davis look bad. It made a desperate Corwin campaign and a scared ECGOP outfit (the one that’s supposed to cruise the detested Chris Collins to re-election) look bad, instead.

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

A local website is reporting that former Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo offered to convince independent conservative NY-26 candidate David Bellavia to withdraw from the race in exchange for money; it accuses Caputo of soliciting a bribe from the million-heiress’ campaign.

Caputo issued this response:

I have never solicited a bribe in my lifetime. I play no role whatsoever in the NY26 race. I do not work for David Bellavia and I made no contact with the Corwin camp at his behest. More importantly, David Bellavia would never entertain such an unconscionable idea.

David’s opponents have done some pretty rotten things to force him out of this race. They’ve lied to his face, they’ve lied to others, they’ve denigrated his valorous combat service to our nation, they’ve illegally accessed his credit report, they’ve left bribe offers on his voicemail, they’ve maligned his family, and more.

Clearly, this is just another attempt to smear David: when a candidate fuels his campaign with integrity, he becomes a popular target for those who have none.

Were Bellavia to leave the race now, having been accused of being associated with an attempted bribe, he would be under a cloud of suspicion for some time. He can’t withdraw now; his hand has been forced.

One must … be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

By staying in the race, Bellavia clearly hurts Jane Corwin‘s chances, siphoning off more conservative voters and probably many veterans, as well. Even detestable xenophobe Jack Davis harms Corwin’s campaign, because he’s running as a tea-party candidate to pull out the “I hate brown people” vote. Hell, even Ian Murphy helps Hochul’s campaign because his Green Party platform and likely Beastly antics will help to moderate Hochul’s demeanor by contrast, and help position her as a centrist.

It all boils down to the fact that this race is eminently winnable for Hochul, and there appears to be a faction even within the Erie County Republican establishment that would very much like that to happen. It explains why the NRCC went negative on Hochul yesterday, and why Corwin went negative on Hochul today – so negative, so fast (and so clumsily)? Someone’s worried.

In 2006, 40+% of NY-26 voters held their noses and voted for Jack Davis. In 2008, 40+% of NY-26 voters voted for Alice Kryzan. If a generic Democrat can pull in 40+% of the vote in that district, a Kathy Hochul – who represents as clerk more people living in NY-26 than Jane Corwin does – can expect to do somewhat better. Hochul is well-liked, seen as someone who has made government services more streamlined, businesslike, and accessible. She is unknown in Monroe County, but that’s surmountable. Attempts to tie Hochul to Nancy fricking Pelosi smack of such small-time, disingenuous hackery.

The root of this Bellavia bribery story has, therefore, got to be in Chris Collins’ camp, we think. He’s got the motive, the means, and the opportunity to slime Carl’s enemy, Caputo, and simultaneously lubricate Hochul’s path to Washington.

And you thought the Machiavellianism in WNY – especially from our esteemed, tax-hiking County Executive – couldn’t get any more tinpotty.

Campaigning for a congressional seat is serious business; Congress is serious business. It behooves us, the people, to avoid sending irresponsible dummies to represent us in Congress if at all possible. For instance, knowing what we know now, perhaps more people would have refused to vote for former Rep. Chris Lee (R – Clarence/Disgraced).

But when someone runs for Congress – especially a seat made vacant due to sex scandal, you’d figure that the candidate would properly vet his campaign staff and weed out … well, weed out the male prostitutes.

Last week, ads began popping up on Craigslist and other free online classifieds like Backpage seeking campaign workers for a campaign starting March 10th. Prospective employees were asked to call “Jay” at a number with a 303 area code; Colorado. Here’s one from backpage that’s still cached in Google:

The ads, while cached, have since been quickly scrubbed by the person who posted them when people started connecting the dots. Here’s the Craigslist ad that appeared in the Buffalo section – again featuring Jay with a 303 area code:

Here’s how it looks today, with the same Palin profile image, but the same changed name as the MySpace profile, in what appears to be a clear effort to conceal.

So, what’s all this about male prostitution, you ask? Well, click to enlarge this wholly different ad that Lasher evidently took out last year through Backpage.com. Note the inventive transformation of that same 303 phone number. His email? “jay4massage”. He has strong hands that know how to be soft and the desire to make this an event you’ll never forget. I wonder if that’s the pitch he gave Jack Davis about collecting petition signatures?

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Lasher also apparently took out this ad in “CityVibe”, offering escort services and massage. Again, same phone number, same 303 area code, and the lanky, long-haired guy in the image closely resembles the profile image in Lasher’s MySpace profile:

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Stamina, drive, and “strong hands” that “know how to be gentle”.

The following ad that Lasher evidently took out is particularly unsafe for work and quite sexually explicit. Again, it features the name “Jay” as in “jay4massage” and the same 303 area coded number.

The first image shows the information; his phone number, his email address, and the special and stamina-y services he offers.

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Here’s the second part of the ad, which reveals his “strong hands”.

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Note especially the fascinating disclaimer:

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Lastly, three graphic ways of proving that the ad is “NOT an offer of prostitution!”

We’re not passing judgment on homosexuality or sensual massage or happy endings or whether prostitution should be legal. None of those philosophical issues matter. Jay Lasher is, as far as we’re concerned, free to pursue any employment he wants whether it’s being a male escort or getting petitions for the execrable Jack Davis. (Frankly, the former may be more morally correct than the latter).

What matters here is that xenophobic newly-minted tea partier, former Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-nutter Jack Davis has demonstrated such poor judgment and political self-awareness that he hired a guy off the street to run his petition effort who happens to have recently hired himself out as an erotic masseuse, claiming not to be a male prostitute, despite adding pictures of his erect penis to his “massage” ads. Literally anyone with a rank knowledge of how to use Google could have vetted Jay Lasher a bit better.

On Friday, WNYMedia editor Chris Smith emailed David DiPietro, (who is officially employed by the Jack Davis campaign) and asked him if he was aware that someone named Jay Lasher with a 303 area code telephone number was soliciting paid canvassers on behalf of the Davis campaign. DiPietro replied, “Jack does have an outside firm helping with petitions along with a number of volunteers. I do not know the ‘Jason’ you are talking about, but I am not directly involved in the petition part of the campaign. I will find out tommorrow (sic). It is too late tonight. The 303 number does sound familiar. I’ll let you know.”

Calls made to Lasher’s 303 number were, likewise, not answered or returned.

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After two days of waiting for that response, Smith again emailed DiPietro and campaign attorney Jim Ostrowski for comment on the specific matter of Lasher’s alleged masseuse-cum-escort side-job, we are still awaiting an official reply. This morning, in response to this active Craigslist ad enjoining people to call “Jay” at a 716 number about working in the campaign office, Smith called asking to speak with Jay, Jeremey, Jason, and any other “J” name he could think of, ending in “Lasher”. The woman who answered confirmed that the number was, in fact, the Davis campaign’s office, but that no one named “Jay” worked there, or had ever worked there. A follow-up call revealed an outgoing voice mail message featuring a male voice asking people who are calling about the “ad” to leave their information.

If this is how Davis goes about hiring campaign staff, whom exactly will he hire should he go to Congress? It’s about smarts and responsibility.

The voters of the 26th Congressional district have suffered through Jack Davis’ moneyed temper tantrums three times already, and each time has been an utter disaster. He’s alienated everyone who supported or helped him in those efforts, and has become a grumpy, reclusive, immigrant-hating Monty Burns who thinks he can buy himself a Congressional seat.

Just say no to Jack Davis, his petitions, their carriers, and his final quixotic exercise in self-aggrandizement.